Wrinkles

Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.- Mark Twain

I examined my face in the mirror one morning

Before lathering on mandatory make-up, wondering

When those fine wrinkles had stealthily appeared

I was growing older faster than anticipated, I feared

Just the site of those wrinkles around my tired eyes

 

Made all the suppressed insecurities rise

To torment me, to remind me that I was approaching

Middle age; I dabbed on face powder, silently reproaching

Myself for being so shallow as to pay undue attention

To physical traits- it was beyond my own comprehension

Why, despite all my accomplishments in other domains

Losing physical attributes of youth was causing me such pains…

 

I have learnt from my past, am more confident

Being in my skin, yet the wrinkles bother me, I cannot pretend

To be unaffected by the erosion of youth, I feel insecure

I want to stop time, but aging has no cure

I wonder if one day I would be brave enough to attempt

Face-lifts and botox, procedures I had held in contempt

Or, as the wrinkles grow, I would learn to accept

Them as part of life, not let them have an effect

On my self-esteem- these questions are difficult ones

To answer today, it might not matter in the long run

Once again, I am reminded that no matter what we do

 Physical attractiveness has its own power, sadly that’s true…